The battle against Gannett's exclusive newspaper-distribution networks has heated up in the last two months, with Jackson Free Press and The Independent Weekly (Lafayette, La.) publishing details in their print editions, JFP launching a "Goliath blog" to track Gannett's progress in Mississippi, and Editor & Publisher covering the controversy in its latest issue. For anyone still confused about how the "networks" are harmful to alt-weeklies, Darren Schwindaman has explained the process in a cartoon (available here), which ran as a full page in JFP's print edition.

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Craig Malisow "crossed the line" during his investigation into online pharmacy referral services, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Two agents from the DEA visited the Houston Press office yesterday and seized some generic Vicodin and anabolic steroids that Malisow had purchased through an online service, he reveals in a story published today on HoustonPress.com. The letter from Malisow that was published on Romenesko yesterday, in which the reporter mentioned purchasing the painkillers and asked for advice in dealing with a blackmail attempt from one of the service's employees, was "a bonehead move" that was "directly from the King of Bad Ideas, Lord of Planet Dumbass," he says. Michael Lacey, executive editor of Village Voice Media, addressed the blackmail attempt and the seizure in a statement released this morning, saying the company believes "the entire shooting match" would benefit "from full disclosure as well as a vigorous legal defense."

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